The US Patent Office has granted patents related to rain formation and induction spreading along nearly the previous 100 years. In 1920 U.S. Pat. No. 1,338,343 was granted for the process and apparatus for the production of intense artificial clouds, fogs, or mists.
Aviation developments triggered inventions related to the formation of clouds since 1927 as well as the instrumentation of airplanes for the dispersion of many types of powders including those of agricultural interest. Among these are the U.S. Pat. No. 1,619,183-1927, 892,132-1932, 195,707-1934, U.S. Pat. No. 2,480,967-1949, U.S. Pat. No. 2,510,867-1951, U.S. Pat. No. 2,582,678-1952, U.S. Pat. No. 3,126,155-1964, U.S. Pat. No. 3,429,507-1969, U.S. Pat. No. 3,456,880-1969, U.S. Pat. No. 3,313,487-1967, U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,050-1990, U.S. Pat. No. 5,174,498-1992, U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,069-1992 or 6,056,203-2000.
Other inventions involve cloud seeding employing bullets, pyrotechnics, missiles and rockets from aircraft or ground into the clouds such as U.S. Pat. No. 2,963,975-1960, U.S. Pat. No. 3,813,875-1974, U.S. Pat. No. 4,096,005-1978, U.S. Pat. No. 5,357,865-1994, U.S. Pat. No. 3,441,214-1969, U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,840-1972, U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,147-1986 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,690-1987.
Some inventions involve satellite approaches such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,402,480-1983 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,239-1999. There are inventions specific to develop seeding gases, liquids and solids of specific sizes and microstructures such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,127,107-1964, U.S. Pat. No. 3,630,950-1971 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,129,252-1978. There are inventions for cloud seeding from air or ground facilities aimed to induce or mitigate rain, hail, fog or sleet such as the U.S. Pat. No. 1,665,267-1928, U.S. Pat. No. 2,908,442-1959, U.S. Pat. No. 3,545,677-1970, U.S. Pat. No. 3,601,312-1971, U.S. Pat. No. 3,835,059-1974, U.S. Pat. No. 3,896,993-1975, U.S. Pat. No. 3,940,059-1976 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,455-1997.
Cloud seeding has been practiced for many years around the globe. Scientific articles have reported cloud seeding experiences in USA, Israel, China, South Africa, Argentina, and other countries as referenced below. In general the successes of cloud seeding have been documented as statistical differences in rain probability, rather than direct cause effect measurements.
Cloud seeding is now considered a potentially very valuable tool to improve rain precipitation. Research progress has produced encouraging results that will eventually make cloud seeding a practical technique to overcome draught by programmable rain induction and to develop water supply for many regions. Although the efficacy of cloud seeding is currently a matter of academic discussions, many countries have launched significant resources and efforts in direct cloud seeding. Regardless there are not yet reports of a proven or reproducible direct cause effect of cloud seeding and precipitation, claims of successful correlations sustain the international efforts.
Nimbus stratus or nimbus cumulus clouds are the ones that produce rain, snow, sleet or hail. Since nimbus clouds are dense with water, they appear darker than other clouds. Nimbus clouds are formed at low altitudes and are typically spread uniformly across the sky.
The seeder-feeder mechanism is a well characterized and singular rain induction process where the relevance of the present invention is significant. The seeder-feeder mechanism typically occurs when a double layer of clouds, one above the other leaving a space about 500 m to 1,500 m of air as described in FIG. 1.
The seeder-feeder mechanism is defined as the introduction of ice or condensed water nuclei from above into a lower level liquid cloud. The introduction of condensation nuclei can initiate precipitation from the low-level cloud layer. As condensation nuclei are introduced into the lower liquid cloud, the ice crystals or condensates can grow by deposition, which can cause the low cloud to precipitate. There are features in the observed soundings and surface observations that can alert a forecaster to the potential for the seeder-feeder process to occur within 12 hours.
In a seeder-feeder type of cloud system nuclei can be formed in the upper cloud can occur around air dust particles made of kaolinite/clay, volcanic ash/dust or vermiculite. Nuclei can also be formed by artificially dispersed silver iodide, potassium chloride, plain salt or other compounds. Properly dispersed particles in the micro and nanoscale ranges can efficiently seed cloud nuclei by using as little as 500 g per square kilometer.
The resulting precipitation by a seeder-feeder mechanism is very dependent upon the proper characterization of all the atmospheric parameters as well as the spatial variables such as upper and lower cloud thickness and the air gap in between. The temperature, pressure, wind and humidity distributions within the clouds, in the air gap, as well as the corresponding surface variables.
The present invention is a precise and reproducible tool for smart cloud seeding. As it is hereby described consists of an apparatus and system and method to assist in effectively induction of rain form cloud formations by implanting particulate compounds in optimized cloud sites of accurately measured specific meteorological parameters.
Typically the current state of the art rain induction technologies involve poor decision making based on long distance and low precision atmospheric parameter measurements, low accuracy procedures and coarse and/or unsafe seeder dispersion practices.
For example China has practiced rain induction (or hail prevention) by the launching of ground to cloud rockets. Explosive charges were sent using missiles to disperse seeder materials, where the decision making was made also from long distance ground to cloud measurements, or simply from visual appreciations such as cloud morphology aided by atmospheric parameters at ground.
Other approaches involve airplane flights into the clouds, or dispersion of sub-sized particles floating from ground stations all the way into the clouds.